Coup d’état in Paraguay: It is the resource war, stupid!

By Saulo Araujo July 19th, 2012

Two excellent pieces written recently about the intersection of the June 22 coup d’état in Paraguay and land issues offer a clear analysis of the core issues behind the power struggle in the South American nation.

“What lies behind today’s headlines, political fights and struggles for justice in Paraguay is a conflict over access to land; land is power and money for the elites, survival and dignity for the poor, and has been at the center of major political and social battles in Paraguay for decades. In order to understand the crisis in post-coup Paraguay it’s necessary to grasp the political weight of the nation’s soil.”

In a more blunt analysis, João Pedro Stedile, from the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), describes the reasons why Brazilian agribusinesses favored the coup. He mentions:

“Paraguay has the world’s largest rate of land concentration. From its 40 million hectares [of farmland], 31,086,893 hectares are privately owned. The other nine million hectares are public land located in the Chaco, a mostly infertile region with low levels of precipitation.

Only two percent of the population owns 85% of all agricultural land. Among the large landowners in Paraguay, foreign farmers own 7,889,128 hectares, or 25%, of farms in Paraguay.

There is no parallel to this in the world: a country that has peacefully “given” to foreigners 25% of its agricultural land. From this total parcel owned by foreigners, Brazilians own 4.8 million hectares.

Links can be drawn between this year’s coup d’état in Paraguay and the 2009 coup in Honduras, both of which were fully supported by an oligarchy of major land holders opposed to land reform. As result, thousands of landless peasants saw their chances to have land disappear. In some cases, like in the Honduran region of Aguan, the struggle for land has resulted in death and intimidation of land rights activists. In Aguan, more than 1,500 families continue their fight for land, even after 60 peasants have been killed.

Based on Dangl and Stedile’s assessments, the coup d’état results from more than geopolitical tensions. It is very much rooted in land grabs and a corporate-sponsored greedy war for resources in general. It is not a surprise that peasants are leading the way to restore democracy in both Honduras and Paraguay. The Via Campesina recently organized a solidarity mission to Paraguay. In the mission’s final declaration, Via Campesina members affirmed “the will power and determination of peasant and social movements to struggle for Lugo’s reinstatement and the defense of real democracy and the interests of the poor...”

The US government has yet to voice a strong position in opposition to the coup in Paraguay. It failed to take a strong position against the coup in Honduras. Considering the US’s involvement in the Operation Condor that swept aside democracies in South America in the 1970s, it would be a refreshing decision to oppose the overthrow of the democratically elected President Fernando Lugo. It would also seem highly unlikely.